


Compatibility

by Silivren77



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 03:20:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20575592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silivren77/pseuds/Silivren77
Summary: Multiple lives are turned upside down and confusion ensues as Voldemort thinks beyond just getting his war and bid for power started.





	Compatibility

**Author's Note:**

> The characters and world are all J K Rowling, but this plot line has been rattling around in my brain for a while and I always love seeing where I can take them.

Draco sat next to his father at the table wishing he could have stayed at Hogwarts for this Christmas break. Yet, only one looking closely would notice how nervous he was for he was well schooled at hiding his emotions now that he had to in order to survive. The other death eaters in the vicinity were all doing their best to remain inconspicuous with Voldemort’s attention on the Malfoys.

“My Lord,” Lucius, who still looked ragged and underfed from his stay in Azkaban, asked, “what is my family to do now that we know Draco is incompatible?”

Draco glanced sideways at his father in embarrassment. It had been two days since the test that had rendered the Malfoy family powerless in their future. Draco nearly snorted as he thought this. Their power over their lives was an illusion he mused. It had been ever since the Dark Lord had reclaimed his body. He had endured two long, torturous days of wondering how his life would turn out now that he was known as incompatible. The Malfoy family had the honor of taking part in the first wave of testing. Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe and Blaise Zabini had been tested first.

This test was a part of the Dark Lord’s long-term plan for ruling the empire they were creating now. The test was a simple test requiring the blood of the person in question and the blood of all potential matches. It would only find a match if the two people in question could produce magical offspring and showed varied colors for how many children could possibly be produced per match. Many death eaters had been quietly obtaining samples of blood from the pure blood families for several months. Voldemort intended to begin breeding his next generation of fighters and enforcers, knowing an underground guerrilla movement was likely to follow any success he had for years.

The compatibility test was designed to show who these loyal young men and women could marry, to produce the next loyal generation and which matches had the best fertility rates. Though Draco thought Blaise had no intentions of becoming loyal to Voldemort. Chances are, they would try to stay neutral in the war. Apparently, they were not being given that choice. Any match providing less than three possible children would be considered incompatible. The Dark Lord wanted the pure-blood population to expand, not contract.

It had become the greatest embarrassment the Malfoy family had endured in many generations. Of course, Draco’s embarrassment was not solitary. Only the Goyle and Zabini families had cause to celebrate. Vincent Crabbe would be unable to produce more than one child with any pure-blooded woman, which was not enough for the Dark Lord. Draco himself would only be able to produce two children in the best possible match for him. This apparently was also not good enough for their master.

The look of abject terror mingling with utter disappointment on his father’s face before he regained composure after the results were revealed were enough to make Draco want to run and never look back. Draco pulled himself out of his thoughts and regained his posture to stare aimlessly in front of him with his head slightly bowed. Hoping the Dark Lord would take it as a sign of reverence rather than avoidance.

“Unfortunately, Lucius, your son’s incompatibility proves a major problem for our cause,” Voldemort mused. Bellatrix sneered from across the table at her brother in law and her nephew as her master spoke. She had been hounding her sister, Narcissa, for two days. Determined to discover her sister’s secret that she knew would explain why her nephew was incompatible, for she did not believe inbreeding was a problem. 

In her mind, marrying within the family was healthy for the purity of the blood line and the strength of the magic within a family. Bellatrix had always dismissed any notion that craziness and other ailments had increased the more a family married internally. She turned her thoughts back to her sister. She knew it was impossible for her sister to cheat on Lucius due to the complex and traditional marriage ceremony on her sister’s wedding day. Lucius could not cheat on Narcissa either, Bellatrix added in her mind. It simply did not cross her mind that they may love each other and not wish to be with anyone else. She knew Narcissa had said many times both now and before the first war that they loved each other, but Bellatrix did not really believe that was possible.

Voldemort’s next statement pulled her out of her revere. “I believe it is time for the old families to regain their lost branches. Unfortunately, marrying half-bloods would create the same result in several generations. Matches must produce four to six children for our population to recover. It is the only way we will maintain control and have any chance to gain power over the muggles in any way. No, any families who fail the compatibility test must marry a muggle-born to ensure proper health of the bloodline and children.” He stated with a faraway look in his eyes.

“My Lord?” Lucius asked hesitantly.

Voldemort smiled maniacally at Lucius’ nervousness before responding. He always enjoyed seeing his servants sweat; it made him feel powerful. “There has been magical blood that has been lost and thinned out due to ancient traditions of removing squibs from our communities. Each family must track them down and reintegrate them to our community and traditions. Especially the muggle-borns who come from those discarded limbs of our ancient lines. The healer who has been conducting the tests showed how true muggle-borns are rare, though possible. Of the muggle-born family lines he traced, three in four were found to have at least one squib ancestor in their heritage per side of the family tree. Nearly half of these lines in the United Kingdom had ancient connections to the wizarding community here or continental Europe if you traced them back far enough. This is also why many times where one muggle-born exists their siblings or cousins will also have magic. Our community must reclaim them if we are to come through as victors in the short and long term. The children of blood traitors will also be married into our cause. We already have their blood. Take their young sons and daughters and marry them into our ranks with limited privileges. Privileges that can increase should they decide to become loyal to me.”

The shocked looks on everyone’s faces would have been comical if the situation were not so serious. Here they had all thought they were fighting for the purity of their bloodlines but now their master was telling them they must mingle with lesser beings, just to breed him an army. In that moment, a few of the death eaters, Draco and Lucius included, realized their war had never been about blood purity for their master. Instead, blood purity was the rhetoric through which their Dark Lord had mobilized his followers and they had blindly soaked up everything he had thrown their way.

Those who had not realized, Bellatrix being one of them, merely looked disgusted at the thought of reintegrating squib lines but did not seem to dare contradict their master. After these moments had passed and Voldemort’s words had sunk in, he continued. “We need to act quickly to pick and obtain those who are to be the first to join our ranks by marriage. The disappearances must be done discreetly for now in order to avoid drawing attention. We will meet again with-in the next several days and I expect all of you to have tracked down as many of these family lines as possible.”

After the dinner, Lucius and Draco retreated to their private wing to discuss with Narcissa what their next move should be. Lucius explained in detail what had happened at the dinner while Narcissa had feigned ill to avoid Bellatrix and the Dark Lord, fearing the conclusions they may come too. Long moments followed this discussion before anyone regained their voice.

Draco was the first to recover from his thoughts, and he was quite angry. “Has all of this been a lie Father? Does the purity of ones’ blood even matter?” He asked, his displeasure showing clearly on his face to his parents now that they were in private quarters.

“Do not dare question me or our beliefs because of this Draco.” Lucius responded harshly.

Narcissa looked between both faces and saw the fight brewing. Deciding this would be pointless to alleviating their current predicament, she stepped in. “This will not help! We must find a young woman by tomorrow evening who will be able to take on the position of Lady Malfoy. Draco, who among your classmates are muggle-borns who are smart enough to learn quickly how to integrate into our society and be the next Malfoy wife?” She questioned.

Anger still burned in his eyes as he responded. “How should I know? I have spent six years distancing myself from those you taught were beneath me. If that is even true.”

Narcissa stayed the cane Lucius had raised to quell the rebellion in his son’s mind, they had never spanked or physically reprimanded their son when he was a child and she would not let her husband start using his cane on their son now. “Lucius, we will have plenty of time after this problem is solved to ensure he will not question our beliefs.” She assured her husband before continuing, hoping to divert his attentions back to the situation at hand regardless of their son’s verbal rebellion. “Draco. Now is not the time for your insolence. You must think quickly.”

They lapsed into silence. Draco mutinously stared at his father considering all the things he wanted to say as a storm of anger raged in his mind. Suddenly, from the back of his mind a conversation sprang forward from the previous school year in his 5th year. As a Malfoy, learning and retaining information was an important strategy that was widely encouraged by his father. One never knew when a bit of information on anyone could prove useful no matter how minute or unimportant it seemed at the time. He thought back to the class in which the conversation happened.

They were in A History of Magic completing an assignment they had worked on since the start of the year. In order to promote unity and understanding each student had been instructed to look at their family histories to see how they fit into the history of the last 100 years. It was some sort of “let’s all get to know each other and hold hands” activity Draco had openly scoffed at. Ever the know it all, Granger had instantly pointed out a flaw in the assignment to professor McGonagall, who was monitoring the assignment due to Professor Binns’ resistance to the interruption in the flow of his lectures and classes.

“Professor,” she had called with her hand straight in the air, “how will muggle-borns complete this assignment?”

The professor smiled a bit in her tight-lipped manner as Draco rolled his eyes. “All muggle-borns, or any student who has some muggle ancestors are encouraged to look into muggle history for their historical interactions.”

When it came to the end of the assignment months later, he and Granger had been paired up to discuss their families. He had been very uninterested in her family, who had apparently taken part in two brutal muggle wars with Germany. However, at one point in her recitation she had called her grandpa Robert, who was her mother’s father, grandpa Selwyn. At the time he had been momentarily startled and then wrote it off as his mind being so utterly bored of hearing about her family that he had heard her wrong. Later, she had shown him a small family tree she had worked up at the beginning of her essay. He had seen the name Selwyn again. 

Confused, he had decided at the time there must be a muggle line of the Selwyn family. Draco did not mention any of this to Granger, as he did not want her to think she had any more rights to be in their world than she already thought she had. Now however, he pondered its meaning. Draco had never heard of any Selwyn being a muggle-born. Only a few of the pure-blood lines had muggle branches and he was quite certain the Selwyn family was not among them as they were 4th or 5th cousins to the ancient line and he had studied the line as he had the Malfoy family. However, he also knew some of the old families would hide knowledge of a muggle line. This could even be due to squibs throughout the centuries now that he pondered her family tree in the light of the Dark Lord’s new expert.

“Father,” he started, “are there any lines of the Selwyn family out in the muggle world?”

Lucius looked taken aback for a moment and then thought before responding. “It is possible but not to my knowledge other than their squib son several generations back. He married another squib, from the Abbott family if I recall right, and was sent out into the muggle world. Never heard from again probably.” Draco thought hard about Granger’s unending scroll he had endured looking at while trying to ignore it at the same time. She had put each of her female relatives’ maiden names on the paper in a little family tree that was well above and beyond what the assignment had called for. The great grandmother’s maiden name had started with an A, he was sure of it.

Draco thought carefully at what he was going to propose to his parents. He had always hated Granger. He had hated that she was better than he was in school, causing him to question what his father told him, while incurring his father’s wrath at letting a Mudblood best him. Hated that she was friends with Potter when he had wanted to be friends with Potter but was rejected. Later in their 4th year, he hated that she was truly growing into a beautiful woman and he thought he would never have a chance at her for she was well out of bounds for a pure-blood like him. He especially hated how it made him jealous of those boys at his school who did not have the same expectations placed on them and could pursue her and other muggle-borns like her. Now he might have that chance, a chance he had fantasized about only in his most private thoughts. Sure, she would hate him for a long time because of this, perhaps for the rest of their lives. Her hatred would not matter. She would be his, and only his. It would be a great coup d’état for his family to have the brightest witch of their age as the next Malfoy wife.

“A Malfoy should only marry the best right?” He slowly smirked as he continued and his father nodded warily, clearly afraid of whatever name was going to come out of his son’s mouth. “Granger’s great grandfather’s name was Selwyn and his wife’s maiden name started with the letter A.” He stated. At this his father’s jaw dropped before he could regain his composure, and Draco knew his father had not expected him to bring up anyone like her at all.

The Malfoys spent the next day surreptitiously investigating Hermione Granger’s family history with several muggle contacts they had. They discovered she was indeed the quarter blooded offspring of the Selwyns and Abbotts. Marrying her would be easy. As she had family who still existed in the wizarding world, along with her parents and other relations being squibs, the head of the Selwyn family could accept a marriage contract on her behalf. They knew he would jump at the opportunity to join closely with the Malfoy family.

A death eater was sent out to secretly collect a blood sample from her. Once it was added to the potion several days later, it was determined Draco would be well matched with her. They would certainly be able to produce many healthy offspring. 

Upon presenting their findings and receiving the blessing of the Dark Lord to pursue her, the current head of the Selwyn family, a death eater as well, offered Hermione’s hand in marriage to Draco before the meeting even adjourned. By midnight that night, a contract was drawn up between the families and signed. The bride price was paid as soon as Gringotts opened the next morning. The contract was filed at the ministry the following bank visit with a generous bag of galleons being handed over to the clerk to keep it quiet and buried under other documents.

Legally, Hermione Granger belonged to Draco and now he merely had to claim her as his wife through the ceremony. All they had to do was get her away from her family. It was an insignificant complication that the Dark Lord wished for them to do it discretely. The Malfoys banded together with the Zabini family. How Ginevra Weasley’s blood had been obtained for the test was a mystery but she had been matched to Blaise and they thought it would be easiest to work together to capture their brides using timing and coordination. Once one was captured the other would be more closely guarded by the Order of the Phoenix. They already had a story ready to go that would discredit any claims made by Order members trying to raise the alarm about kidnapping. Now they watched and waited for the moment to strike.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first fanfic post. If you want, let me know how I did and what I could do better.


End file.
